First, a local United Mine Workers leader compared the Obama administration’s proposal to more closely scrutinize mountaintop removal permits as “state-sponsored terrorism.”
And now, Steve Walker of Walker Machinery says that a couple of young people who hung a banner on his building remind him of “suicide bombers.“
The peaceful protest took place at Walker’s facility up in Belle, as the seniors taking part in an anti-mountaintop removal march walked by on their 25-mile trek, which ended yesterday.
Walker’s comments came during a radio interview in which Chris Lawrence of MetroNews:
I equate these boys with the suicide bombers in the Middle East. People fill their heads with this dogma and they use them to do their dirty work, while people who are older and wiser perhaps sit back and watch them.
Interestingly, the “suicide bomber” sentence wasn’t include in the text-version of the story posted on the MetroNews Web site. But you can listen to the whole thing here.
Giving Walker the benefit of the doubt, he wasn’t actually comparing hanging a banner to strapping explosives to your body and walking into a nightclub or hotel. Perhaps he just meant to say he thinks all the young folks who have come to West Virginia to take part in peaceful civil disobedience protests have been brainwashed.
I know Steve is an avid Coal Tattoo reader, so I’ll invite him here to post a comment and clarify what he meant.
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I think that Steve Walker has gone over the edge. What a horrible thing to equate these young people who practice peaceful civil disobedience to suicide bombers who have killed thousands of innocent people randomly. I wonder how the people who have suffered such terrible losses to suicide bombers would feel if they knew what he said. I would think they would be terribly upset.
I believe he owes an awful lot of people a sincere apology.
If young people were conducting peaceful civil disobedience in Iraq instead of killing themselves and others with suicide bombs there would not be such a tremendous loss of innocent lives! This comparison makes no sense and has no regard for the pledge of non violence that all participants have taken. This banner drop was part of a senior citizen walk to raise awareness peacefully about the impacts of mountaintop removal. Mr Walker, please explain yourself and consider offering a sincere apology.
Let’s call it what it was; premeditated breaking and entering.
personally,i think the comment speaks for itself.there are too many people reading into this comment of what was not said.
Market conditions (i.e. maintaining Wall Street profits and coal executives millions in pay), not environmental regulations, cause the layoffs of hundreds of miners. Coal executives and some (not all) media outlets immediately point the finger at the citizens’ groups and supporters who are trying to save their lives, homes, and communities. They call us terrorists and equate us with suicide bombers, thereby justifying violence against us.
If a CEO doesn’t know the difference between hanging a banner on a building and blowing up innocent people, that’s a big problem. I hope Walker clarifies his remarks and calls on his people to tone it down. We’ve called on Gov. Manchin and the coal association leaders to make some sort of statement about the violence, that it’s uncalled for, not acceptable, something. Instead, we get comments like this. It’s a very dangerous time.
What can Steve say? That his words were taken out of context? I don’t think so, and so many of our men and women in the armed forces have been killed by suicide bombers in Iraq. Surely hanging a banner does not make one a suicide bomber.
That still does not give Steve Walker the right to equate these young people with suicide bombers. That is a shiv in the ribs to all the families of the thousands of innocent victims of suicide bombers. Our military is fighting for the right to peaceful protest. You cannot name one person who has been killed or physically hurt by these protests. Hanging a banner is trivial compared to what crazed suicide bombers do. Trespass is not murder.
In my humble opinion, the coal industry and their supportive industries are ratcheting up this dangerous rhetoric to stir up their employees. There is no reason to use such language. It destroys any chance at any meaningful dialog.
Ken invited Steve Walker to come and comment here to try to explain why he used such horrible words to describe these young people . I suppose he meant what he said or he would have commented or backtracked on what he said by now.
Our military is not fighting for the right to tresspass and break and enter. I think the next time I am pulled over by a law man for speeding Im going to use the excuse of civil disobedience instead of breaking the speeding laws.
Scott 14 these young people were arrested and fined. If you break the law you would be fined too.
I have never advocated breaking the law, however the old folks in that march had things thrown at them from moving cars etc. They were doing nothing illegal, just marching. That is peaceful protest.
I still say that the hateful rhetoric that the owners/operators are using is serving one purpose and one purpose only. To agitate their employees who may do something harmful to the protesters. If the employees do it the owners/ operators get off and the people that they have stirred up pay the price. It is sad that the employees cannot see what it happening.
Breaking and entering, pure and simple tresspassing. I understand Mr. Walker’s statement. The young people who hung this banner did so with the same mentality as a suicide bomber…..on a mission to destroy what THEY think is wrong, with no regard to those caught in the cross fire. People on a mission are dangerous, that’s people should have jobs to keep their minds busy. Just like bombers who kill with no regard, you protest with no regard and no responsibility to the repercussions. If you use power from the WV power grid and protest coal generated electricity, you are a hypocrite
So just to clarify, Scott if you were to use this excuse to get out of a speeding ticket,would that make you the same as a suicide bomber? That seems to be the question raised by Mr Walker’s comments.
Teresa do you think that surface mining operations should receive a government handout in the form of immunity to American laws?
People fill their heads with this dogma and they use them to do their dirty work, while people who are older and wiser perhaps sit back and watch them.
may i ask ,what is it that people keep reading into this for?he said nothing about bombing innocent people,but it is no different to the describing words that some enviromentalists have called the people that are fighting for their jobs.they have been called thugs and terrorists,and no offense here, but it’s been done by you ken ward and by you nanette.i’ve made comments on both sides of this,only to be called a “coal thug” and an” enviromental terrorist”.also i have been called a “tree hugger”,and other describing words i’d rather not repeat.what is the difference ?he has already stated what he meant,and doesn’t need to have people reading between the lines.
These young people are not out to destroy anything. The coal industry has gotten a free pass for years. They have not followed the letter of the law of the CWA especially during the past eight long years of the Bush administration. I don’t believe that wanting the government to enforce the laws on the books could ever be regarded as terrorism.
Mining with little to no regard of the law is dangerous as well. Our government agencies have turned a blind eye for far too long. Now they are taking a closer look and the miners and their bosses are howling about it. How many innocent people have had boulders go through their homes, how many people have suffered property damages? These folks have rightful grievances that nobody ever seemed to want to address. As long as the miners get their payday it seems that they could care less about their neighbors’ plight IMO.
I don’t believe that Mr. Walker needs anyone to explain what he meant by the words he used other than himself. I do hope that he comes here and tries to explain his poorly worded description of these young people. Maybe we are wrong. Maybe he misspoke. We won’t know unless he explains what he meant himself.
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Going onto private property and climbing 30 feet of the ground onto the top of a builiding is not civil disobedience. It is trepassing and it is a crime. Do you think for a minute that if one of these sweet little boys fell off the building or through a skylight and got paralyzed that they or their partents would hesitate for one minute to sue the property owner? I think not. The boys need to be punished for their cime in a way that will make them think twice before do this sort of foolishness again.
Readers,
Had a thought to add to this post and this discussion … at last night’s Corps of Engineers hearing, activist Maria Gunnoe repeated a line I’ve heard others on her side use before … comparing mountaintop removal to genocide.
Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide
I just can’t for the life of me see how the use of such terms fosters our society reaching reasonable policy decisions. But that’s just me.
Ken.
Well I see that Steve Walker still has not had the courage to come here and explain himself. Mr. Walker that speaks volumes about your character. You can spout such hideous words but don’t have the courage to explain yourself or apologize for your outrageous comments.
I find this comment really interesting considering that we all know who’s using explosives in WV, and it sure ain’t the protesters.
[...] Ground Zero reported that four of its activists were arrested on trespassing charged related to that Oct. 10 demonstration when a banner that read, “Yes. Coal’s Killing West Virginia Communities” was hung [...]